FOIA the Dead

ACTION: LEARN HOW TO DEMAND TRANSPARENCY FROM THE FBI

LRX and 100 Days Action invite you to take this workshop with artist Parker Higgins who will lead you into the inner workings of freedom of information and the FBI.

Parker’s project FOIA The Dead is a long-term transparency project that uses the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to request information from the FBI about the recently deceased. Federal agencies may not release information about living people. But after their death, their privacy concerns are diminished, and those records can become available. When somebody’s obituary appears in the New York Times, FOIA The Dead sends an automated request to the FBI for their (newly-available) records. In many cases, the FBI responds that it has no files on the individual. But in some cases it does, and can now release those files upon request. When FOIA The Dead receives it, the file gets published for the world to see.

Parker Higginsis an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, specializing in issues at the intersection of freedom of speech, transparency, and copyright law. His writing has appeared in publications such as Wired, The New Inquiry, Gizmodo, and Techdirt. He previously lived and worked in Berlin, Germany.

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